Weird Science Chapter One
WEIRD SCIENCE, CHAPTER ONE The wind whipped through my hair and stars looked down on Po and I as we stood under the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, Po gazing at me, looking like he does when he talks about Kung Fu- all dreamy like, in another world. He looked like that now. But his eyes weren't in space. They were on me, seeming to look right into my soul. "Po, please tell me!" I laughed, looking back at him, my heart racing. He never looked at me that way, never, so why was he gazing at me this way now? "Why have you been looking at me like that? It's been going on for weeks now, and it's late May. I've been a Dragon Sister for a month and a half, and you've never done this before. Po, please tell me!" Po looked unsure, like he was deciding something in his mind. Finally, he sighed and turned to me. "Kelsi," Po said to me, holding my hand and looking into my blue-ish green-ish eyes. "I just wanted to tell you… how much I've been in love with you. Ever since you came to the Jade Palace and were named one of the Dragon Sisters, I've been attracted to everything about you. Your looks, your strength… your eyes." I blushed, heat rising to my cheeks. "Po, I have to admit, ever since I heard the story of the Dragon Warrior, I've been in love with you," I said back, wanting to be trapped in this romantic moment forever. "I don't know what it is about you that I love, but I… love it." I leaned in closer to him, batting my eyelashes. I wanted him to think I was absolutely irresistible. "I want you all to myself. I don't want to share you with anyone. I'm incredibly greedy when it comes to you. I love everything about you." Now it was his turn to blush. All of a sudden, he leaned over, puckering his lips up. I smiled, closing my eyes and doing the same. We were going to do it. Our lips would meet, and I would have my first kiss- "Kelsi!" Po yelled. I opened my eyes and found him mad at me, fury in his jade green eyes. "Kelsi, wake up!" "What do you mean?" I asked. "What? Po, what about our moment?" "Kelsi, really! You're going to be late for school!" Po yelled at me. But this time his voice had changed. It wasn't his voice. It sounded like the voice of- I looked up. "Mom?" I asked… ---- I opened my eyes to find me laying in my bed and my mother yelling at me in my bedroom doorway. She was in a red robe, pink pajamas underneath, pink slippers on her small feet. Her short, chocolaty brown hair with streaks of gray was in a small ponytail, a clip holding it up. Her blue-green eyes were full of exhaustion, as they usually are nearly every morning. "Wake up, Kelsi, you're going to be late for school!" she exclaimed. "I'm up, I'm up!" I said, yawning in between my words. "I'll get ready! What time is it?" "Around seven twenty five," mom answered, turning around and leaving. My jaw dropped. Oh no. I couldn't miss the bus. I had never missed the bus in all of middle school (probably because the bus stop is literally right in front of my house), and I couldn't miss it now. I jumped out of bed to get changed. ---- A few minutes later, I threw my yellow button-down coat on. It was around seven forty. "Kelsi!" my younger brother Lance yelled from outside. "The bus is here!" "Dang it!" I yelled. I quickly grabbed my backpack and purse, threw them over my shoulders, and ran across my lawn. The doors of the bus had closed, but our bus driver, Bob, opened them for me (Author's note- our bus driver's name is literally 'Bob'). I thanked him, and walked down the aisle to where my two best friends and the other two Dragon Sisters, Trinity and Nicole, were sitting. I sat at the end of the seat next to them, and the bus took off down Lint Street. "Tardy-pants!" Trinity exclaimed, giving me a light punch on the arm. "Sorry, I was having a weird dream," I said. "It made me miss the alarm clock, that annoying thing." "And what was that dream about?" Nicole asked. "And please don't lie and say it was about noodles." I laughed at the Kung Fu Panda reference. "Po confessing his love to me," I finally admitted. My friends broke out laughing. "In your dreams, Kelsi, in your dreams," Trinity smiled. "Man, only Kelsi Faith Rider can have those kinds of dreams. But why can I totally not see you and Po together?" she asked sarcastically. "Hmm, let me think. Oh yeah, he's a panda, and you're a freaking human, for crying out loud! Look at the facts, Rider!" "And what ever happened to that kid Andrew that you were in love with?" Nicole asked, my two best friends staring at me. "Oh, I still love him," I said. "I'm literally torn between two guys." I slumped down in my seat. "Living in two worlds is hard." "You bet," Trinity replied. "Sooner or later, mom's going to find out our secret, and ground us until college for doing Kung Fu without her permission!" "No she won't, because we can't tell our secret to anyone!" I replied, sitting up straight. "Let's make a promise that we'll never reveal our secret to anybody at all!" "But-" "Nicole, nobody." We all put our pinkies out and did a three-way pinky promise. "Now we'll all repeat after me," I said, feeling like a true warrior, like a real leader of the Dragon Sisters. "I, please insert name here." "I," we all said in unison, and then said our names. "Will never reveal the secret of Ai's necklaces to anyone under any circumstances." We repeated what I said, and I continued. "Or else if I do, I will lose my two best friends, my life as a Kung Fu warrior, and will never be given any popcorn when at Kelsi's house." The girls giggled and we repeated the sentence. "And that's a promise I will live by until I die and pass this necklace to my daughter," I said. "Amen." "Did you have to add the 'amen' part?" Trinity asked. "Okay, you don't have to say 'amen'," I said. The girls laughed and repeated me. We let go of each other's pinkies. Throughout the entire ride there, we talked and laughed, like we usually do on the bus. When the bus doors opened, we walked out of the bus and looked up at the mighty two buildings of William E. Henting Middle School. ---- We walked side by side into the building, many other students behind us, turning off their cell phones, cursing at each other, talking, and laughing. Trinity turned the corner to get to the eighth grade building, I went up the stairs to the seventh grade wing, and Nicole went out the door to the sixth grade building, Lance not far behind her. I trudged up the stairs and went to my locker. It was right next to room 503, the main science lab. What I mean by 'main' is that almost every single student has been in this science lab, because the teacher there, Mrs. Donner, teaches sixth, seventh, and a little eighth grade science. She has a lot to handle, even though she isn't the only science teacher. I put the stuff for my afternoon classes away, took out the stuff for my morning classes out, and closed my locker door. For period one, I needed to go to Social Studies class with Mr. Cogswell, room 510. I walked across the hall and into the room, where only half the class was sitting in their chairs and Mr. Cogswell was at his desk, grading tests. The rest of the class hadn't arrived yet, probably talking with their friends and would come in when the homeroom bell rang. I sat down in my seat and looked across the room. Sure enough, Andrew was sitting in his seat, talking to his friends, laughing. That light, bell sounding laugh that rang through the air always made my heart melt. Short, black hair, chocolaty brown eyes, kind of chubby, adorable- I wished he knew what I felt for him. Andrew has been my crush ever since I met him when I was in sixth grade. I felt something for him around October. I didn't know what it was. I longed to be around him, and whenever he came up to me, I was… happy. Happier than I had been in a while. In November I looked over myself and finally realized it was love. But in January, I found out that Andrew loved another girl- a girl who, Edward Kelly had told me later, rejected him. Here's how it all went down- Andrew kept telling me that he was going to ask out some girl and kept chickening out. The next day, I heard him telling Edward Kelly, a guy who was in my sixth grade classes, that Andrew's friend asked the girl for him, and the girl said no. I felt that I had a better chance of being with Andrew, but afterwards, I found out that he still loved her. I still liked Andrew, but I was… upset about it. But I never gave up on love. I forgot about Po and paid more attention to Andrew for awhile, and then when I discovered Po was real- I'm just completely torn now. Andrew isn't just my crush. He's my friend. I mean, really. He and I talk a lot. By talk, I mean that we can sit down and have a real conversation. I smile at his jokes, and he smiles when he sees me smile. That smile always brightened up my day. When I was in a bad mood, I could just talk to Andrew about anything in the world and I'd be happier. We smile and laugh together. We've been smiling and laughing together since the beginning of sixth grade, when we started middle school, and we first met (which was one of the best days of my life). On that day I knew that I had found a friend. Maybe more than a friend. But it wasn't until when I realized that I was in love with him that when he smiled and laughed, I looked deep into his eyes and saw something that I'd never seen before in a guy- I thought I saw hope. It's very hard to tell you what hope looks like. A sparkle in his eyes, and they turned a brighter shade of brown. Like that hope meant that he was thinking (I hoped he was thinking), 'This may be her. This may be the one.' I talked to my friends around me, Becky and Sabrina, for a few minutes while other kids came in. The bell rang when everyone had been seated. A few seconds passed, and the announcements came on. "Good morning Henting," a familiar voice said into the loudspeaker. "This is Mr. Carton, your principal. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance." I knew the pledge so well that I was able to say it without thinking (well, duh, I'd been saying it for over nine years). While we recited the pledge, I was thinking about my dream. Maybe it's a vision of something to come. I wanted it to be, Po kissing me and confessing his love for me. But a part of me didn't. A part of me wanted to be with Andrew. Po or Andrew? I had a better chance of being with Andrew, since Po was much older than me (I read somewhere on the internet that he was supposed to be around twenty eight), but if I got rejected by him… I just don't know what to do! We all sat down and another person came on the loudspeaker. "Good morning," she said. "Today is Monday, May seventeenth, and it is an A day. A few announcements. Tonight is Henting's annual pasta night. Come with your friends and enjoy a lovely pasta dinner, and help raise money for the school. Desert will also be served." Pasta night. I may ask my mom if Lance and I can go to that. "Students, an important assembly will be held in the auditorium this morning," the woman continued. "Sixth graders will go during period one after announcements, eighth graders will go period two, and seventh graders will go period three. Attendance is mandatory. At the assembly, an important announcement will be made, so make sure you're there." An assembly? The last time an assembly was held it was to stop the violent protest that had been going on throughout the school to get Mr. Mc'Kennley, a gym teacher, fired from his job. That was in the beginning of the year. I wondered what this one was about. The woman went on with the announcements about when the yearbooks would come in (they'd come in soon, because it was late May already) and how all sixth grade language sheets are due next week (the language that the sixth graders want to keep going on- you could choose from Sign Language, Spanish, French, and Italian. I picked Italian, Trinity picked Spanish, and Nicole's going to take Sign Language). When the announcements were done, Mr. Cogswell started the lesson on World War Two, which I tried my hardest to pay attention to. I copied notes down in my notebook, paying close attention to my teacher speak. My eyes darted across the room once or twice to look back at Andrew, who was as focused on the lesson as I was. I told myself to look back at the board. I can't do bad in Social Studies this year. Last year, there was a time where I was doing horrible in Social Studies, and forgot some of my homework (which didn't sit well with mom and dad). I promised myself that it would never happen again, and it never did. But I still want to do good. ---- Period one passed, and period two came quickly. I tried my best at cooking during home and careers (but I may have accidentally burnt the pasta a bit), and then period three came- the assembly. I walked down to the auditorium, which is very close to where my home and careers class is (so I got to choose from all the good seats), and I sat in the third row in the middle towards the right. I sat next to a few of my friends, Becky (who could be my twin with her blonde hair, blue eyes, thin figure, and glasses), and Sabrina (black hair that's usually in a braid, dark brown eyes, and tan-ish skin). We talked for awhile, about how our lives were going and about things that were going around the school. "It's horrible, what happened to Mrs. Donner," Sabrina said at one point. "I didn't know her that well, but I feel extremely sorry." "Me too," Becky agreed. "What happened?" I asked, confused. "You haven't heard?" Sabrina asked. I shook my head. "What happened?" "Mrs. Donner-" Becky was saying, but stopped when five familiar girls walked into the auditorium, laughing at something. All heads turned to them. The girls walked down the aisle and up front next to a large group of boys who were looking at them like they were wolves looking at hunks of fresh meat. "The Fab Five," Becky muttered, glaring at the girls. The Fab Five is a group of five widely known, fashionable, popular, gorgeous girls at our school. Other girls long to be like them, boys dream of dating them. I despise them. I want to be one of the girls, having boys love me greatly. I really do. The leader of the group is Nicki Natziana, a girl who was in my Kindergarten class. I was friends with her at a time, but in second grade, when the Fab Five was formed, I stayed as far away from her as possible. Nicki has shiny black hair that rests on her shoulders, chocolate brown eyes, light, flawless skin, and a skinny, tall figure. She is very talented and smart, and is always using the latest products and wearing the hottest fashions. Her family is rich (her dad owns a pizza place), and her house is extremely large (I went there once when I was young- but only once). The other members are four other girls who treat Nicki like their queen. One is Sophie Calliope, who has curly dark blonde hair, blue eyes, light, flawless skin, a skinny, short figure, and glasses similar to mine. Tina Calliope (Sophie's twin sister) has straight, dark blonde hair, hazel colored eyes, the same light flawless skin, and a skinny, tall figure. Melody Johnston has dark chocolate brown eyes, short, brown hair, a tall figure that's not quite as skinny as the other girls, and the same skin tone. Last but not least, Liz Virginia. She has curly black hair, light brown eyes, circular glasses, she's a little shorter than the other girls, and unhealthily skinny. Together, the girls are the most attractive bunch to ever walk through this school, and all heads turn in their direction when they walk by. We stared at the Fab Five. Oh, how I wanted to be Nicki Natziana. I wanted to be beautiful, to be loved by countless boys. To be able to find a boy that I like and easily confess my love to them, knowing that they will love me back. I wanted to be rich, being pampered by my parents and getting endless amounts of things for my birthday and Christmas. Oh, how I wanted to be Nicki Natziana…